Parting gift

This is a picture of Simone- The contortionist llama, mentioned in my previous post. I feel quite honoured to have her as she was made for part of an exhibition of circus animals by my colleague Victoria. She was a gift to mark my leaving and my colleagues thought she was appropriate obviously because of the llama connection but also because apparently I always stand with my legs twisted around each other!

The leaving

Well, my last day at work has been and gone. All in all, leaving work was actually very pleasant, and not in a negative way. I spurned the idea of an official leaving event, with presentations and speeches and organised something myself that involved maximum activity and minimum opportunity for discussion. And so it was, 16 of us went to our local bowling alley and together we did two games of bowling, ate a meal in a basket and then had a go at Laser Quest; where grown men and women put on belts with flashing lights and carry laser guns and try to shoot each other in a dark room with scary music playing! I enjoyed every minute!

Earlier that day my colleagues had presented me with a clay llama, made by Victoria, the pottery teacher. I will post a picture of it and more information later. Similarly, my colleague who makes fantastic cakes made me a big cake of 'the house on the hill', complete with mountain bikers and a French flag ribbon.

When I arrived at work yesterday there was a large bouquet of flowers on my desk and throughout the day, I did various little jobs that I had saved up interspersed with farewells to different people. It all felt very positive.

At 3.30 my colleagues came down and helped me transfer my possessions to my car, using the opportunity to remove any office furniture that was better than they had into their own offices like vultures pouncing on the dying! I returned by office key, made one final defiant gesture and left my unwashed mugs in sink, waved goodbye to everyone and left! It felt good.

Last week

Today is the first day of my last week at work. This morning it was cold and crisp as I left the house and got on my bike. I could see the sea from the top of my street and the horizon was a deep blue line against the paler sky. The leaves are falling from the trees in earnest. I am feeling quite content with no sign of panic and I am actually looking forward to the rest of the week.

Progress notes

I am still without a kitchen, but work is progressing and Ian is working hard at home while I finish my last few days at work. I am currently clearing out my office, which is as bad as my home for being full of junk and unsorted bits of paper!

Heartwarming

Yesterday I found myself totally glued to the television or to the Internet, watching the rescue of the Chilean Miners. I saw almost every one of the 33 step out of the rescue capsule that had pulled them some 700 metres from below the the ground, and step into the arms of their families, friends and waiting dignitaries.  I can't remember a time when a news story has gripped me so much, except perhaps watching the events unfold on 9/11. This was totally different.  It was a wonderful positive story of people working together to save other people with a happy outcome.  I know that after this initial euphoria, it won't all end happily ever after for them all (one wife discovered that her husband had a mistress for years while he was missing in the mine!); life is not really like that. The cynic in me also noted that the politicians were there, and milking the event for their own gain; but yesterday my cynical side was pushed very much to the background. Someone commented on Facebook that it was the best reality TV show they had ever seen!

Co-incidence?

I have no kitchen at the moment as we ripped out the old one at the weekend. As usual once we had stripped everything out we realised that there was more to than we had hoped. C'est la vie! Plugs needed replacing, walls re-plastering, floors levelling. The most peculiar thing we found were some pipes buried in the floor, wrapped in old plastic bags. Unfortunately these seemed to be still connected to the heating system and Ian was for once stumped! We called my friendly plumber but no reply!

Tonight we went to Screwfix and B and Q to buy the rest of the bits we needed to finish the kitchen and who's van should I see parked outside but the Plumber's! I hid behind it until he left and pounced! I stood between him and his van until he agreed to come round next week and remove the wayward heating pipes! In fairness to him he said he was very busy as everyone had switched on their heating systems and found them broken!

Moving

The Universe works in mysterious ways as no sooner had I changed the banner at the top of the blog to demote the llamas to a less prominent position, they suddenly re-inserted themselves into my consciousness! I occasionally do a Google search of 'llamas for sale' and this time I spied someone selling a whole herd for a very reasonable price on the condition that the herd stayed together. Obviously an opportunity too good to miss and a quick email established that they had not been claimed. However, here is where the present interfered with our plans for the future as this news coincided with the weekend that Ian was finally moving out of his flat.

I arrived at his house on Friday evening. "I'm nearly packed; just a few bits of wood to remove from the loft tomorrow" said Ian; so with that I drifted off to sleep imagining some light packing, moving and cleaning the following day! Well, the few bits of wood turned out to be a loft full of tools, boxes, old cupboards etc and with 20 minutes to go until the new tenant arrived, we were still removing them from the loft! It really was like a scene from one of those DIY programmes where they are finishing off as the owners walk up the path!
Like one of those programmes we made it by the skin of our teeth, drove back to my house and were so tired yesterday it took us all day to recover! During our recovery we looked into the how's of transporting llamas to France and considered how we might  do it and whether it would be possible! I eventually phoned the seller of the llamas in the evening only to be told that someone had bought them that afternoon! Well I was a little disappointed but also relieved as logistically it would have been a nightmare!  However, what it did was re-ignite the llama flame and for that I am grateful!

My grandmother's chair

This is my grandmother as I remember her in her later years. She was in her 90s here and in the winter she would move this chair into the sun and sit, looking out over her garden, snoozing, or just looking. I always remember her in this chair. She had two of them and they were her mothers' I think. She only ever had the money to get one re-upholstered and the other languished in it's original covering. She particularly liked the chairs because she was quite short and they were small and upright. When she died I couldn't bear to throw them out and no one else wanted them, so I took them to my small flat. I had every intention of getting them re-upholstered but never got round to it and in the end they have just cluttered up everywhere and had been and been virtually destroyed by the cats who seemed to think the rough wool covering was a perfect claw sharpener!

I still couldn't bring myself to throw them away despite their poor state but Ian insisted that if they came to France they must finally be re-upholstered. After a few attempts at finding an reasonable upholster I eventually stumbled into Chris from Valley Upholsters. He works with a partner in a smallish mews workshop near the station and mostly does contract and commercial work. However, he seemed genuinely interested in the chairs and knowledgeable about their construction and for a very reasonable sum of money put his heart and soul into rebuilding, restoring and recovering them. I got them back yesterday and I think my grandmother would be delighted to think that her old chairs will now be used again, and with any luck could last another 100 years!

About to jump

I have been experimenting with a new layout as I was getting a little bored with the other one. The banner across the top was taken from the terrace in France in the middle of August. There was not a cloud anywhere. The background is from a blogger template but I thought it fitted quite well. The sky and clouds seem to fit quite nicely with my current mood and feelings as it is like I am just about to jump out into space and float away freely to whatever awaits! (Well on some days it feels more like I am going to jump and land flat on my face, but I try not to think about that too much!) I also changed the description slightly as the dreams of llamas and cycling everyday seem a bit of a long way off at the moment!

Ian is on his way back from France after unloading a van load of boxes at our neighbours' house and trying to finish putting in the ceilings in the kitchen. This job took on more of a sense of urgency after he got up to make tea yesterday and realised that it was only 11 degrees in the kitchen! Ceilings and insulation make a big difference! I think my electric Teasmade is going to come in rather handy on the mornings when it is my turn to make the tea!

When he arrived there was no power to the house. We are still on a temporary supply until we have finished all the wiring and had it signed off by the local inspector and it had tripped out at the main switchboard, which happens to be on a pole in our neighbours hedge. Every time he re-set it, it tripped again, until he discovered the black and crispy plug socket in the bedroom! He later discovered that the pole had been hit by lightening a few days before, causing one of our neighbours plugs to fly out of the socket and across the room! Time to get the lightening arrester fitted!

Last minute panic

Suddenly I feel that the speed of events is picking up way too fast! Of course this is not true as we have been planning our move to France for more than two years, but all of sudden it is within touching distance and in some ways I can't believe we are there. It feels a little unreal and all those feelings of excitement and hopeful anticipation are being swept away into a tide of uncertainly and doubt and to make it all worse I am beginning to realise that I will miss my job and work colleagues! It's a strange feeling. I don't get it all the time but I am glad it is there as to really leave somewhere hating every last minute would be a bitter experience. At other moments I can get a sense of a new life ahead and an uncertain but exiting future. How great to still be able to have adventures when you are the wrong side of fifty!

Very soon there will be no time for these feelings as we will be totally caught up in the logistics of packing and moving. Ian is there already. Olga, a Russian woman from his previous workplace, was interested in his flat and she moves in next week. She is exited and Ian is rushing round trying to pack up his things. Tomorrow he drives down to the house with a full van of boxes and plasterboard, hoping to finish the ceiling in the kitchen before the winter starts. On his return we will start the final countdown.

The earth moved...

Well, it did for one of my closest friends, who now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. They were close to the epicentre of an earthquake measuring 7.1 magnitude. These are her words:

an amazing 24 hours. the earthquake the most terrfiying thing ever. It felt as tho the house was picked up and dropped many times. I woke leapt out of bed shouting "earthquake" ran to Owen's room and was screaming at him to get up. It was so loud as the ground groaned. The house shook and china and glass crashed around us. We are all happily ok but left with a chimney that needs to be pulled down.

and from her husband

we are ok after major earthquake here in Christchurch. Our chimney is a gonner and a few precious things lost but we are fine if shaken. On top of it all, it is my wifes 50th birthday today - what a way to celebrate.

I called tonight on SKYPE and ironically had the best quality SKYPE call I have ever had ..no annoying echo or time delay.. She had gone to work. The schools are closed and they are still experiencing after shocks. Last night Owen slept under the table and they slept on a matress in the living room. As I spoke they had another aftershock.  Someone had suggested that they go out for dinner, but I don't think there was anywhere to go out to!

End of an era

I am an occupational therapist. I do not talk about this specifically in my blog very often as I moved from clinical practice many years ago into teaching and did not want this to be a blog about occupational therapy as such.

When I did my training occupational therapy was a diploma and became an honours degree course in this country in 1991. It had already been a degree course for many years in the United States prior to this, and about that time a new breed of occupational therapy academics were emerging; helping us to back up our observations with science and developing theories to help us to understand what we were doing. One of these pioneers was Gary Kielhofner. In the early 1990s his youthful enthusiasm and ideas inspired us to think about our profession in a different way. His ideas were amongst those that guided me to towards my degree and PhD.

I met him on a couple of occasions. He became involved in some projects that were happening in my previous workplace and spent a few days with us. I didn't find him an easy person to work with at that time and I didn't always agree with him but found him interesting and charismatic as always!

He had just bought a farm with his new wife and it was rumoured that he was trying to cut down on his work commitments and spend more time there. Two weeks ago he became ill and was taken to intensive care. He was diagnosed with malignant lung cancer and died at the end of last week. He was 61 years old.

My profession is suffering from bereavement at the moment.

Merging lives

Apologies for the lack of posting. Contrary to what some think I did in fact make it back from France but was thrown immediately into work without time or energy for a moments reflection. However, this period of my life is now coming to an end.

This time I have returned in a different mood. Of course I will not miss the frustrations from work, but at last, thankfully, I am beginning to appreciate the things that I will miss. The colleagues who I can chat and joke with over lunch, the way I am challenged by some of the things I have to do (in a positive way) , the grateful students, and the not so grateful and the students that I know I have made a difference to! I can finally say that I am glad and sad to go. This trip was different to the others. Up until now I have had my time in France; a working holiday, my work life, and home lives here and at Ian's place in London and I have managed to keep them in separate boxes. Now, they are merging together, and my 4 lives are becoming one. In a couple of weeks the London life will cease when Ian rents his flat; and I already have some potential tenants for my house and I can see a real end to these lives soon.... and in the not to distant future my main life will be in France. This is important to realise I think. One thing I learnt over the summer is that for our change to work we must make a 100% commitment to it. There can be no going back and forth to England every month because we feel like it (although some trips will be necessary at first); we need to work hard to make sure that we integrate into our new life in France and not spend most of our time with other English people, I need to work the two days a month that I have been offered in Bordeaux and maybe look for some other work to keep me interested until our B&B is operational; I need to try to learn to be French for a while even if, for a while, it means putting my English bit on hold. (I can easily revert to it if necessary).

Time to go already

All to soon our three weeks are coming to an end and we are, as usual, rushing around trying to finish off things before we return home. The weather has continued to be hot, which has been a problem for working. Yesterday the temperature reached 39 degrees again but this was accompanied by a strong wind that was so warm it took my breath away as soon as I stepped into it. Last night the temperature didn't drop below 29 degrees in the room and neither of us slept that well. However, today the cloud came in, the wind increased again, the temperature dropped slowly and by afternoon we watched as brief but heavy rain storm raced across the land towards the house. When it hit us it blew down the ladder that Ian had used to get onto the roof! Just as well I was there and not too p*ssed off with him as I was able to put it back and enable him to get down. He has been trying to finish the soffits. This was a job we started last year but could not finish as we couldn't access one side of the house and ran out time with the tower. The disadvantage of not having soffits is that Renata redstart and her family now think that the roof is the perfect place to raise a family and have moved in; covering everything with bird sh*t. We are on course to finish all but the front of the tower, for which we need to build some scaffolding to reach. Hence I fear we will not deter Renata this time round.

We spent a day in Bordeaux this week and I have provisionally agreed some dates with the school to do some teaching. It is not brilliantly paid but is a start and will certainly help me to settle into my new life.

The local Mayor (think Vicar of Dibley) owns a airstrip that he uses for microlights. They had an open afternoon and we dropped in briefly to see what was going on at the same time as group of monks from Plum Village, mindfully watching the scene! The whole thing was quite bizarre!

We asked the Mayor if the Russians were landing on his airstrip. He didn't laugh at all but said that the Gendarme had asked him the same question a few weeks ago!

We had a full moon at the beginning of the week. When the moon is full you don't need any lights to see outside.

A second French wedding

When we arrived the temperature was comfortable, reaching 22-25 degrees during the day and 12-13 at night. This was just right for working in. However, for the last few days the temperature has crept up into the mid 30s, reaching 39 degrees yesterday afternoon and not going down much below 26 at night. This has been pretty uncomfortable and made us reassess the need for some portable air conditioning for the bedroom!

Yesterday we went to the wedding of the farmer's son. Ian visits the farmer (M Mulatier) often and talks about tractors and machines. His son has two children and he and his partner were not married so I guess eventually the presuure to conform got to them, or it felt like now or never in terms of timing! In fact, it was a double ceremony with their wedding and the baptism of their second child. I hope it was a buy one, get one free deal!

This was the second French wedding that I have been two. As France is a secular state everyone must marry first at the Marie. So, following the trail of hedge clippings laid that morning (a tradition) we headed up to the Marie in Thenac in our Tranist van, with the air conditioning on full blast. In due course, the procession of cars arrived, with lights flashing and horns blaring. Following up behind was this tractor, decked in flowers and various banners!

The banner reads " convoy of happy angels".

Nothing was quiet about the arrival; there was lots of shouting and cheering and the wedding was conducted by the local Mayor. The bride and groom say "oui" and then the Mayor reads out a long list of relevant French legislation and law, things are signed and everyone leaves, heading for the proper ceremony in the church.

The church in Puyguihelm is spectacular in that it is perched right on top of the hill, with the doors opening onto the most wonderful panorama over the vineyards of the Duras region.

The searing heat make it look more washed out than it actually is.

Fortunately the ceremony was not a full Mass. As in the UK no one but the priest knew the words or the tune of the hymn but at least he had a wonderful voice! Being a dual event the service was still quite long and by the time it finished I was soaked in perspiration and longing for a cool drink.

As the couple left the church for the obligatory photos their friends had a special guard of honour with hard hats for her (she is the manager of a building site) and toy tractors for him. This was accompanied by heart shaped confetti (with no one complaining about who was going to sweep it up, the priest just being relieved that he had managed to save two more souls!).

The day finished with a 'Vin d'honor' in our village hall where I thought I was drinking grapefruit juice but alas it was a local cocktail containing something very alcoholic! I was served in a refridgerated fountain which meant that we all drank more than we should. However, I noted again the phenomenon that alcohol improves my French!

The Russians are coming

Our three weeks seems to be racing by and already I can tell that we will not get all the things done that we had on the list, but that is what usually happens. We are aiming to finish off some more wiring and to plasterboard the rest of the ceiling in the kitchen. Ian intersperses this less interesting activity with sojourns on the digger! I can hear it whirring in the background!

On Saturday evening we went to the soiree jambon braise in the village. The committee de fetes in the various communes usually organise an event each year to  raise money for local projects ets. I suppose it is a bit like the English village fair. Tickets are 18 euros and you turn up with your own place setting (knife, fork, plate, bowl etc). There were about 100 people there; a mixture of locals, French, English and tourists. The food consisted of an apperative, tomato soup with tapioca, barbecued pork with pepper sauce, braised haricot beans with garlic and pig skin, cheese, cider and dessert of cherries soaked in alcohol and ice cream. This was all accompanied by wine, music, etc. and I must say was enjoyable enough to justify the hangover the following day.

On Monday night we went to our neighbours to finally eat the leg of venison that as been in their freezer since February and was given to us by le Chasse as it was shot on the land. I must confess it was very tasty and I only had a slight pang of guilt when I thought about the four lovely deer that have been running across the field all week.

We caught up on some local news. Now France has become too expensive for most English people the Russians are arriving. In the nearby village of Thenac the Chateau has been bought and beautifully restored by a mate of Abramovich and the rumour is  Abramovich himself has bought the neighbouring hilltop! The reaction of the locals has been mixed but I am not going tho say anything bad at all!!

Visitors

We have had  a few visitors chez-nous over the last few days. On Thursday Julie from my French class came for lunch. We sat in the sun on the terrace and looked out into the field while her partner and Ian discussed the problems of building in France and the UK. It was very pleasant. Just as they were leaving Ian's friend from the north of France arrived. He is staying with us for a few days to help Ian and also for a change of scene for him. He arrived complete with his pop-up caravan. This was a bargain Ebay purchase as it cost him all of £200 and as it folds into a trailer, means he does not have to pay the higher tolls on  the motorways. It comes with all its original fittings and is now parked under the trees.

Yesterday morning we were looking out of the window just as a hot air ballon glided into view. At first we thought it was going to put down in the field, but it managed to stay aloft for another kilometre or so and we saw it ditch in a nearby farm.

The final group of visitors have been of the wild variety. We have seen several deer and hare but the most frequent visitors have been the praying manitis (is the plural mantii or mantises?). There are lots in the field..so many that I abandoned my strimming so that I didn't kill any more. One in particular has taken a likeing to the house, despite all our attempts to rehome her in the field, she keeps coming back!

Connected to the rest of the world

I haven't minded the fact that we have had to get all the hot water from the shower , or that I have been cooking on a camping stove, or that the toilet has until recently flushed directly into the field, or that we have no TV.. However, I have missed the Internet. When we were here last we signed up to a new WiMax service. "It will be installed within two months" said the girl, from the comfort of her Parisien office. Two months came and went and still no sign. Ian called once, and then again and then eventually, 4 weeks ago, got through to the installer who came out with the age old excuse ,'sorry, my van broke down'. He agreed to put us in his diary for first thing Monday. By 10.00 o'clock on Monday, when there was so sign, Ian called him. "Sorry, I forgot. I've just got back from holiday". (In France the customer is always wrong!) We agreed to reschedule until today. At 9.30 there was no sign and a call confirmed that the installer was lost! Eventually, however, at 11.00, he found us and started his work installing an arial pointing at the only transmitter that was not obscured by a hill. As you can see we now have Internet access. It is a little slow for uploading things and at times has been a bit hesitant, but at least we can now stay in touch with our virtual lives and virtual friends!

The dumper truck made it down in once piece without any more problems. However, getting it off the trailer and into the field was another matter as it starts with a starting handle. Two grown men could not get it to fire so ended up bump starting it down the field. In the end there was a puff of white smoke and it coughed into life and trundled around the field with Ian cheerfully in command!

Fly free water butt! Fly free!

Tonight we are staying in the Premiere Classe hotel in Rouen, which is neither premiere or classy but does have free Internet. The dumper is still attached to the trailer although the water butt that Ian fixed on to it with straps managed to disconnect itself and fly free somewhere south of Calais. The first we knew of it was when we were stopped by a 'securitie civile' man who told us he had been driving behind us as it launched itself into the air! We said sorry, decided the water butt was not worth rescuing, and continued on our journey. Later on we heard a traffic announcement saying that there was an object on the road south  of Calais and to take care. We suspected the water butt!

We ate in the only restaurant in the area, the Campanille. Campanille and Premiere Classe are operated by the same group. The meal was expensive and just ahout edible but being English we didn't complain!

All aboard

We are off to France tomorrow for three weeks and I am feeling a bit stressed as I still haven't finished the packing! I am quite good at last minute packing, but I need to be totally focused and alone. This time I had Ian looking over my shoulder so I am convinced that I have forgotten something very important. Ian arrived mid-day with a dumper truck on his trailer. When I got home at 3.00 it was covered in small boys, staring at various mechanical bits!
We now start the slow and tedious journey to the Dordogne; never going above 90 km an hour! We should arrive some time on Sunday, stopping overnight in Rouen tomorrow. The good news is we should be getting our WiMax on Monday so I may manage blogging on the go!